American DRAM fabber news:
<< A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted at 6 p.m. EDT/3 p.m., PDT, 7/31/98
Micron sees DRAM ASPs rise
By Ismini Scouras
Electronic Buyers' News
SAN FRANCISCO -- Both 16-Mbit and 64-Mbit DRAM prices have
bounced up in July, said Kipp Bedard, vice president of corporate affairs
at Micron Technology Inc., speaking at the BancAmerica Robertson
Stephens semiconductor conference here on Thursday.
The average selling price (ASP) of a 16-Mbit jumped to $1.65 from
$1.35, while 64-Mbit, PC-100 compliant devices are now hovering
around the $9.00 mark after they bottomed out at $7.50 this Spring.
The company is now receiving a premium of between $1.25 and $1.50
on PC-100 compliant 64-Mbit devices compared with non-PC-100
compliant parts, Bedard said. Nearly 75% of Micron's 64-Mbit devices
shipped are PC-100 complaint.
"I can't give a reason [for the ASP increases]," he said, citing the
possibility of a pick up in demand from PC OEMs that have completed
reducing finished goods inventory in the channel, as well as seasonal
factors. "It could be temporary."
Micron achieved the 16/64-Mbit price per bit crossover in mid July, one
quarter earlier than it had expected, he said. The company said it will
reach unit crossover in the late September, early October timeframe.
The need for storage is driving the average amount of memory per PC
by 8% per month. In April, 42 Mbytes of DRAM was the average; by
November, Micron said the average could reach 83 Mbytes per PC,
higher than its original forecast of 55 Mbytes six months ago.
Nearly 50% of its wafer starts are at 0.21-micron, the process
technology it will use to outfit the Richardson, Tex., fab it acquired from
Texas Instruments Inc. last month. It will take between nine and 12
months to convert the fab. "We'll have our hands full," Bedard said.
In fiscal 1999, the company will make $900 million in capital
expenditures; $600 million will be allocated toward its Boise, Idaho, fab,
while the rest will be spent on its Avezzano, Italy, facility-also recently
acquired from TI, he said.
In its aggressive pursuit to shrink die to reduce cost and grow capacity,
the company has spent the last four weeks negotiating new financing
agreements with banks in Japan and Singapore where it is a minority
owner in DRAM ventures.
It plans to stick with 16-Mbit DRAMs for awhile, and will do one more
die shrink on the generation from 0.3-micron to 0.21-micron.
Micron also expects to sample a Rambus DRAM part before the end of
the year. "We're starting to run wafers," Bedard said. >>
Micron has acquired its technology future from the deal with TI. They continue to show strength and plans for future growth. No capitulation here! The international economic warfare over DRAM market share continues.
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